News of the Week (September 10th, 2017)

Gun Rights

Do us all a favor. Don’t shoot at the hurricanes
As serious as the subject of Hurricane Irma is, no event could take place in this part of the country without at least one appearance by “Florida Man.” And the headline for this one could have come straight out of the Onion. Florida Man Encourages People to Shoot at the Storm. Which of the standard responses should we go with here? What could possibly go wrong? Or What’s Wrong With Florida? And yes, this is an actual story.

Why Is Health Insurance so Complicated?
Why is health insurance so complicated, while car insurance and life insurance are so simple? Can health insurance be more like, well, insurance? Lanhee Chen, fellow at the Hoover Institution, explains.

National Lawyers Guild of San Francisco: “We are all Antifa”
Leaders of the far left National Lawyers Guild (NLG) in San Francisco have written an opinion piece for the San Francisco Chronicle titled “We are all Antifa.” The piece not only glosses over violence which took place in Berkley, it seems to endorse future violence.

Trump to End DACA — in Six Months
Former NROer Eliana Johnson reports at Politico that in his announcement tomorrow, Trump will vow to end DACA, the program granting work permits to illegal-immigrant “DREAMers” who arrived as children and teens – but six months from now, to give Congress a chance to come up with a compromise. She cautions that “nothing is set in stone until an official announcement has been made.”

“Too Cute to Be Straight”: Canadian Taxpayers Fund LGBT Message for Kids
Heterosexuality is only for ugly people – that’s the message promoted at taxpayer expense in Canadian schools, where “Too Cute to Be Straight” is among the slogans on buttons distributed to students in public schools by the Alberta GSA Network. These anti-heterosexual messages were posted to the Instagram account of the government-backed group that promotes homosexuality and transgenderism to children.

George Bernard Shaw Defends Hitler, Mass Murder
In this clip from the 2008 film “The Soviet Story”, we see that George Bernard Shaw, the celebrated progressive playwright defended Hitler, advocated killing those who can’t justify their existence and called for the development of lethal gas 10 years before the national socialists in Germany did exactly that.

Economy & Taxes

Canada demands U.S. end “right to work” laws as part of NAFTA talks
Canadian negotiators are demanding the United States roll back so-called “right to work” laws – accused of gutting unions in some U.S. states by starving them of money – as part of the renegotiation of the North American free-trade agreement. The request is part of a push by Ottawa to get the U.S. and Mexico to adopt higher labour standards under the deal.

Now Venezuela would like to renegotiate all of their debt
In addition to having collapsed into tyranny, the nation of Venezuela has also seen their internal economy implode. They’re only able to produce a trickle of oil compared to their full potential and their capital reserves are nearly at rock bottom. Unfortunately for their dictator, Nicolas Maduro, they are also deeply in debt. They have payments with interest totaling more than four billion dollars due before the end of the year.

Opinion

Can the left do without identity politics?
Anis Shivani argues in Slate that it’s time for the left to give up on identity politics because this approach is dragging down the progressive agenda. He acknowledges, however, that it’s too late for such a change of course.

A DACA Deal
The furor over the fate of the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: or DACA program offers further evidence, as if we needed it, that Washington has lost the knack for spotting opportunities for governing.

Tom Cotton Gets the DACA Conundrum Exactly Right
Immigration is a very complicated system and, inevitably, tinkering with one part causes effects–sort of like that butterfly’s wings over in China–that are difficult, if not impossible, to anticipate.

Karl Marx Would Say That Our Progressives Are Doing It Wrong
We are either a melting pot wherein “all men are created equal” – the ideal of our Founders for which we have long striven . . . – or we are to become a multicultural nation of pigeon-holed special interests. We are to become a nation where groups are encouraged to remain apart, defining themselves by their victim class before defining themselves as Americans. . .

Why is “Civil Rights” Returning Us to Segregation?
Getting rid of segregation was the great victory of the old Civil Rights movement. But now we’re seeing a return to segregation on college campuses with racially exclusive housing and racially themed centers. Thanks to race-hustlers who keep telling young “people of color” that the white world is against them, those students are convinced that they’ll be better off with separate accommodations and “safe” spaces.

We Are At War For A Free And Open Internet
This is the story of Gab’s most difficult and most controversial decision to date. On September 1st I opened my email to see a note from the compliance department of our domain registrar, AsianRegistry.com. Instantly I knew something was up. They asked that we update our contact information on the gab.ai domain within one week or it “may result in the suspension of the domain.” To be fair: the address was outdated. The last time we tried to update it on the AsianRegistry website it failed. We promptly provided the requested information and updated to our new address.

A 2020 Democratic agenda is emerging
With no clear front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, several prospective candidates are beginning to stir. The process of touching donors and activists has begun, and a Democratic Party message that is beyond simply being anti-Trump is becoming increasingly clear.

Wednesday Was Trump’s First Day As A Democratic President. Here Are 7 Things You Need To Know.
President Trump spent his first day as a Democratic president on Wednesday. After months of being excoriated as a racist and a nut by the Democratic Party, Democrats suddenly found a man they could work with — and Trump seemed to revel in it. The day began with a rally in North Dakota, where Trump talked up Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp, whom he called a “good woman.” He explained, “These are great people. They work hard. They’re for you 100 percent.”

On parallels between the transgender and gay marriage debates
Bethany Mandel has a lengthy essay up at the Federalist which already has the LGBTQRSZXYXYC3PO community up in arms. (But then, when are they not?) The title was what originally caught my attention… How The Trans Crusade Made Me Rethink Support For Gay Marriage.

Trump’s Potential Triangulation
Congressional Republicans have acted like they have an equal seat at the table. They don’t have that, and they don’t deserve it. And Trump should stop pretending they do.

Are you now or have you ever been?
Article VI of the Constitution prohibits a religious test for public office. So what was Senator Dick Durbin doing asking Notre Dame Law Professor Amy Coney Barrett — one of President Trump’s nominees to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals — “Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?” How is it that Senator Dianne Feinstein thought it could be proper to observe of Professor Barrett: “When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.”

Here’s What Defenders of Campus Kangaroo Courts Won’t Tell You
It’s Betsy DeVos day here at NR. I’ve got a piece up on the homepage detailing how critics of campus due process rely on junk science and sometimes even sheer malice to prop up failed Obama-era policies, and our editors have expressed their own support for reforming campus Title IX prosecutions. But as you read these pieces and weigh them against the #StopBetsy invective across the web, consider one more thing – state and federal courts are making change inevitable. Universities are losing due process cases from coast to coast.